The Effectiveness of the Reciprocal Modeling and Video Modeling Program in Developing Motor Imitation Skill of Children with Autism.

Student Name:Kawthar Y H Ahmad

Abstract:This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of two ways (video modeling and Reciprocal modeling) in teaching the autistic child the kinesthetic imitation skill, and to increase the motivation of an autistic child to learn the kinesthetic imitation skill, by using the most effective means that are attractive to the child. The total sample of the study was (10) children with autism, between the ages 4 - 7 years old of the children enrolled in Alia center for early intervention in the Kingdom of Bahrain, distributed into two divided groups one of group underwent modeling by video modeling and the other group underwent reciprocal modeling. Each experimental group consisted of (5) children. The study instrumevts were : The Rating Scale the kinesthetic imitation skill, which includes (18) items, the training program which contains (18) training session, which was applied in 3 methods: the first was video meetings, the second was the use of live and reciprocal traditional method of modeling ,Third,The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) . The results showed statistically significant differences in the post test scores of motor imitation skills of the children who were excpased in the two groups (video modeling and reciprocal modeling) in both methods children’s performance has improved in imitation, and both of the groups got the same amount of gain according to age and environmental conditions on the education and training, yet the measuring results showed that there were no statistically significant differences in the post and application in favor of the live video group , on the other hand the video group were the highest in maintenaning the kinesthetic imitation skill compared with the reciprocal modeling group.